Crack in earth’s magnetic shield recorded

Q. The world’s largest and most sensitive cosmic ray monitor in India has recorded a burst of galactic cosmic rays that indicates a crack in the earth’s magnetic shield. Where is it located?- Published on 04 Nov 16

a. Kullu

b. Ooty

c. Manali

d. None of the above

ANSWER: Ooty

The world’s largest and most sensitive cosmic ray monitor located in India has recorded a burst of galactic cosmic ray indicating a crack in the magnetic shield of the earth.

The burst occurred when a giant cloud of plasma ejected from the solar corona struck the earth at very high speeds.

This caused massive compression of the earth’s magnetosphere.

It triggered a severe geomagnetic storm.

GRAPES-3 muon telescope located at TIFR’s Cosmic Ray lab in Ooty in TN recorded a burst of galactic cosmic rays of 20 GeV in 2015 lasting for two hours.

The burst occurred when a giant cloud of plasma ejected from the solar corona moving with the speed of 2.5 million kmh struck our planet, causing severe compression of earth’s magnetosphere from 11 to 4 times the radius of the Earth.

A severe geomagnetic storm that generated the aurora borealis and radio signal blackouts in many high latitude countries.

Earth’s magnetosphere extends over a radius of a million km acting as the first line of defence.

It shields planet earth from solar and galactic cosmic rays thus protecting life on the planet from high intensity energetic radiations.

The crack is temporary only.

It occurred due to the magnetic reconnection allowing lower energy galactic cosmic ray particles to enter the atmosphere.

Earth’s magnetic field bent these particles by 180 degrees from the day side to the night side of the earth, when it was found by the GRAPES-3 muon telescope in June 2015.

Solar storms cause major disruption to human civilisation by crippling large electrical power grids, GPS and satellite operations and communications.